MahlvsmanConfusable pair

Quick tell: Mahl is a noun, man is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Mahl” is a noun and “man” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,039
“Mahl” frequency rank
#48
“man” frequency rank
24087
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mahl man
Definition Vorgang, bei dem Essen zu sich genommen wird, gespeist wird zur Bekräftigung und ohne wörtliche Bedeutung

Where the eye mixes Mahl and man

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Mahl
3 ch
man

Look-alike desk: Mahl vs man

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Mahl is [maːl] while man is [man]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24087, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mahl is recorded at frequency rank #24,039, classified as anoun, pronounced [maːl]. man is at rank #48, tagged as anadv, pronounced [man].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 24087, this pair ranks #1,852,534 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Mahl vs man

Shared letters: am. Private to "Mahl": hl. Private to "man": n.

"Mahl" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "man" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mahlamhl · mahhl · mahll · malh · mhal · mmahl

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Mahl" and "man" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Mahl" is a noun and "man" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Mahl" or "man"?
"man" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #48 in our German list, against #24,039 for "Mahl". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mahl" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "man" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,852,534 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mahl" and "man" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Mahl vs Mals". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #1,852,534 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list